


Names Aren’t That Important

by the_nerdiest_insanity



Series: The Name Game [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Little Shit, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Are Twins, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders is Extra, Flirting, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, Nicknames, Other, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Tags Contain Spoilers, Theater Kid Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Trans Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Trans Male Anxiety | Virgil Sanders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26721904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_nerdiest_insanity/pseuds/the_nerdiest_insanity
Summary: A soulmate au where your partner's name is inside your wrist and changes if they change it.Having names be your soulmate identifier is great... if you actually tell each other your names.Instead, these two idiots call each other nicknames for months.Mutual pining ensues. (Not for long)(Part of The Name Game AU, but can be read as a stand alone)
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: The Name Game [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944610
Comments: 6
Kudos: 183





	Names Aren’t That Important

**Author's Note:**

> Rated T for language.
> 
> The second story I wrote for this au even though chronologically it comes first.
> 
> Also, I'm pretty sure it doesn't reference the other story at all, if you're reading this as a stand alone.
> 
> I was just thinking of the soulmate name concept and thought about how Virgil took so long telling the others his name. Which got me thinking that if he were to do that with Roman in real life, Princey would be so annoyed and petty that he wouldn't share either. Then, they would dance around each other for months, slowly falling for the other and getting sad they aren't soulmates until they realize that they don't know their actual name.
> 
> The whole name change thing is mostly because I still wanted to use it in this au and to add a bit to the sprinkling of angst.
> 
> Now, onto the story!
> 
> ~Spoilers~  
> CW/TW: swearing, trans mentions, hitting someone (accidentally), minor self deprecation, the word "voodoo" (nothing graphic, just a Princess and the Frog reference), talking about misgendering, panicking/freaking out/being scared, Remus (he's pretty ooc, but still wanted to give the warning)

It should not have taken them as long as it did to figure out that they were soulmates.

They both blame the other’s stubbornness.

Their first interaction wasn’t a great one.

Roman had been running late to rehearsal, which never happens.

In his mad dash across the school yard, he tripped over someone’s bag on the ground and ended up slamming into said person, taking both of them to the ground.

“Ow!” the other yelped, “What the hell! Watch where you’re going, jerk.”

Roman quickly scrammed off the stranger, mumbling out apologies before he took a good look at them.

Damn, they were hot.

They had black hair that faded to purple and ended around their shoulders. And their wardrobe was an emo, punk mashup that would usually send him the other direction.

So, why did he want to get even closer this time?

“Did you get a concussion from the fall, or are you always this spacey?”

Roman snapped out of it, realizing the poor impression he was leaving on the new person.

“I’m sorry again for the fall. I happened to trip on the bag and fell into you.”

The other looked at him, quizzically. “So, are you saying it’s my fault for having my bag here?”

Shit. That’s not exactly what he meant, but it kind of sounded like it.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that…”

“Then what did you mean?” They crossed their arms and stared right through him.

He swallowed, hard. 

He tried to think of the best way to phrase it without offending the stranger until the school bell started going off.

Double shit. Rehearsal.

“Um, I can’t think right now, but I definitely don’t blame you for any of this.” The other scoffed. “I just need to get to rehearsal before I’m any later. We could talk later if you’d like. What’s your name?”

They rolled their eyes. “You really think after knocking me down and blaming me for it, I’m just gonna give you my name?”

Roman huffed. “I told you, I don’t blame you for it.”

“Yeah, sure. Totally.”

“Fine,” Roman snapped, “if you won’t tell me your name, I won’t tell you mine.”

The person laughed. “Okay, Princey.”

That… wasn’t actually too bad. He kind of liked it, not that he’d let the other know that.

“I’ll see you around, Emo.”

…

“Oh hey! Sir Sing-a-Lot! I haven’t seen you in a while. Care to blame me for something?”

“Get over yourself, My Chemically Imbalanced Romance.”

…

“What are you up to today, JDelightful?”

“Nothing much, Chandler, how about you?”

*slightly confused offended Princey noises*

…

“How’s Dr. Facilier today?”

“Pretty good. Haven’t used any voodoo today. How about you Naveen, catch any flies?”

*definitely offended Princey noises*

…

“How long until they realize they’re soulmates?”

“Oh please Patty-Cat, you and I both know that my brother is far too dense, and tall, dark, and brooding is too stubborn to quit.”

"... so like, three more months?"

…

“Hey Fierro, what’s up?”

“Well, if we’re gonna be sorta… kinda… frenemies? I don’t know. But if we’re gonna keep it up with the nicknames, I’d like to know your pronouns, so I don’t accidentally misgender you. I use he/him, but you’ve probably heard my friends use them enough to know. I may be teasing you, but I’m still a gentleman.”

“Oh, um thanks. Um… she/her, I guess.”

“...I guess? I don’t mean to pry, but if you’d prefer something else, I’d happily do that. Or just use gender neutral ones if you’re still unsure.”

“Yeah. Could you just, uh, use neutral ones?”

“Of course, Trash Panda.”

“You just had to ruin the moment, Hans?”

*even more offended Princey noises*

…

"Sweet Beetlejuice, what happened to your hair?"

"Who else would color my hair like Kermit's armpit?"

"Why did you let my fiend of a brother anywhere near your head?"

"I fell asleep playing video games in his room and woke up like this."

"That might been partially my fault. I colored my hair a full rainbow a little under a year ago and had a few colors leftover."

"Fantastic."

"Come on. We're going back to my house. I believe I have some purple leftover as well, and we can get you back to your regular Amethyst soon enough."

"...Thanks, Ruby."

"Really? That's the best you've got? Commenting on my aesthetic?"

"No, I wanted you to know that that Steven Universe reference didn't get past me."

"..."

...

“Oh look, Prince Charming finally arrived.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t miss me, Stormcloud.”

…

“Oh come on! They aren’t even trying to hide it anymore! That was just blatant flirting.”

“Oh honey, my brother's head is thicker than an iceberg.”

…

Roman had been flir--blickering… and teasing, yeah. 

He’d been teasing the emo for a few months now.

He sighed and looked down at his wrist, tracing over the letters he knew by heart.

_Annabelle..._

...in long, scraggly writing, like she was writing it in a hurry. It reminds him of _Hamilton_. And it’s royal purple color because any soulmate of his deserved to be treated like royalty.

He had lost interest and focus in his homework a while ago.

Instead, he would close his eyes and imagine what his soulmate would look like. His Annabelle.

He knew that he shouldn’t have an ideal person in mind, and he would never be disappointed if she didn’t look like how he imagined, but it was still fun to think about.

So Roman closed his eyes and laid back on his bed trying to picture “Annabelle.”

It took a minute, but she slowly started to form in his mind.

First, a fairly generic body shape and black clothes like you’d find on an avatar before you customized them.

That happened sometimes, he would just come back to it later. He decided to focus on the face instead.

He couldn’t really see her hair, but she probably had it up. She would do that in a few of his dreams.

He looked at all of the small details as they shifted and fit he’s current ideal. As they moved, he almost thought they looked familiar, but that’s happened before too. Sometimes people he sees in school or on the street get mixed in.

He chose to open up the eyes while the face did its thing.

Roman was greeted by a heterochromic pair of eyes that almost glowed in the darkness. One was green and the other purple.

He jumped back. He knew exactly who’s eyes those were. 

He looked at the whole face again seeing it finish shifting into the accompanying face.

Backing up further, he realized that the hair was in fact down, he just couldn’t see the raven hair against the black backdrop. He only noticed because of the purple ends, around shoulder length.

Finally, he figured out that the clothes weren’t just something random his mind made up, it was the black hoodie, t-shirt, and ripped jeans said person almost always wore.

“Hi Roman…”

Roman startled awake and bolted upright. He wasn’t sure at what point he had fallen asleep, but his subconscious must have then taken over, making him unable to alter what was going on.

He was breathing heavily and ran his fingers through his hair when he caught something out of the corner of his eye.

Wondering if he was still asleep, he pulled his soulmark closer to his face for better inspection.

_Virgil…_

...in the exact same scrawl and color that Annabelle was… or used to be. What?

He tried rubbing it, washing it, scrubbing it with just about everything in the bathroom cabinet.

What did this mean?

There was only one person he would trust with this.

Roman knocked on his brother’s door cradling his wrist like he’d broken it.

Remus just stared at his brother with wide eyes. Usually he was the one waking his brother at insane hours to do things.

“Remus, I need your help.”

He quickly ushered his scared brother into the room and on his bed. “Yeah, what’s wrong Roman? Did you break your wrist or something?”

Roman just shoved his wrist in his twin’s face, unable and unsure of what to say.

They had each other’s soulmarks as memorized almost as well as their own. He knows that his brother has the name _Logan_ in an indigo color and blocky, 8-bit style letters.

A look crossed over Remus’s face that he couldn’t quite place before handing back the wrist. “I don’t really know. Do you wanna look it up with me?”

“Yeah.” Roman was happy he had volunteered to do this together because he really didn’t want to go through this alone. Plus, Remus could get through the parental block.

Remus plopped down in front of his computer and began to quickly type into the search bar: “why did my soulmark change”

Thousands of results came up, so they started at the top where someone else had asked basically the same question, just in a little more detail, through an ask website.

Remus started to scroll through the answers while Roman looked over his shoulder.

The top answer said: “The same thing had happened to me and thankfully I knew my soulmate already. So while I was panicking and apologizing they told me that they were trans and that that was the name they had just chosen today. I was so relieved and so were they since I was completely accepting. They ended up changing names a few more times after that and each time the name would just change like the old one never existed. Hope this helped!”

They scrolled through a few more, but they all just said the same thing.

Huh.

“Well,” Remus said as he spun around in his chair, “it looks like your soulmate is actually a Virgil and _not_ an Annabelle.”

Roman looked down at the name for the first time, without fear, and, honestly, he loved it. He thought it sounded beautiful and couldn’t wait to meet them. 

He smiled softly and traced the new letters, already beginning to commit them to memory. “Virgil. Yeah.” He walked out of his brother’s room, eyes barely straying from his wrist.

Remus chuckled to himself while his phone buzzed from underneath his pillow again.

  
  


👶Emo👶: r you sure it isn’t too weird of a name?

👶Emo👶: i want it to b unique but not too unique…

👶Emo👶: plus it’s after 1 of my fav poets of all time

trust me doom & gloom :🐙Trash🐙

virgil’s a great name :🐙Trash🐙

  
  


He snickered at his screen.

Everything was going to be fine.

…

Roman spent the next week thinking about Virgil almost non-stop.

He would daydream about them when he was bored. 

Even if a lot of them turned into one particular person.

He would doodle their name in the sides of margins and just about every scrap piece of paper he had. Sometimes the paper wasn’t even scrap, and he would still doodle away in a bright purple pen.

It was the second Monday after the new name appeared that something big happened again.

Roman was walking to his locker like normal when he saw a bit of a huddle around a locker a few down from his.

Since the people were blocking his locker, he decided to see what the commotion was.

As soon as he could see into the center, he froze.

Next his brother and their friend Patton was his em-- _the_ _emo_ that he’s been teasing for the past few months. 

Except, they looked different. 

Really different. 

A good different.

They kept the ripped black jeans, combat boots, and black under-eyeshadow, but that was it. 

They cut their hair short where it’s buzzed on the sides and the front is just long enough to cover your eyes. And, of course, the bangs were dyed purple. Royal purple. Huh.

They had a black hoodie with purple checkered patterns and thick white stitches. It even had a purple inner lining to the hood.

Then they had an undershirt that was also purple with a few rips in it with black underneath to not show the skin.

However, the most impressive part was that they were wearing a binder. H*ll, they might have even been flatter than Roman!

But overall, they just looked beautiful…

Wait.

He’d just said that about…

And they’re wearing royal purple…

A week after the name changes…

And I never learned their…

All of Roman’s thoughts halted.

**I still haven’t learned their** **_name_** **.**

Well, there’s only one way to remedy that.

Before he can even register it, he’s walking through the group, directly for the emo.

The pair make brief eye contact before Roman is right in front of him.

Here goes nothing.

He sticks his arm out, like he’s going to shake the other’s hand.

“I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” he says, “Roman.”

Recognition and excitement flashes over the other’s eye before they right themself, grab his hand, and look him in the eye. 

“My name is Virgil.”

**Author's Note:**

> Could you find all of Sanders Siders, Disney, and musical theater references?
> 
> Trust me, there's a lot and it took me forever.
> 
> Also, Annabelle was taken from Anxiety and because of the cursed doll since that's Virgil's aesthetic. I just wanted to put that in since it took me a good 15-20 minutes to pick out the right name.
> 
> Honestly, I wish I had the confidence Virgil did in this to just say screw it and do a full transformation over like a weekend. One of my friends actually did, and they never regretted it.
> 
> I hope to everyone out there that no matter where you are in your transition that you're doing well and know that everyone goes or has to go at their own pace. And don't worry, you'll get there sooner than you think.
> 
> I just want to thank you for reading and hope you come back again! Please give me any and all sorts of feedback, positive or negative, I truly just want to improve my writing. Stay safe guys, gals, and fellow non-binary pals!


End file.
